Featured Research

Potential Role For Retinoic Acid In Autoimmune And Inflammatory Diseases Identified

Date:

June 18, 2007

Source:

La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology

Summary:

An important finding, which could eventually lead to a new therapeutic approach for treating autoimmune and inflammatory diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, colitis, psoriasis and others, was recently announced. The studies, conducted in laboratory mice, demonstrated the role of retinoic acid, a substance derived when vitamin A is broken down in the body, in regulating inflammation.

Share This

An important finding, which could eventually lead to a new therapeutic approach for treating autoimmune and inflammatory diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, colitis, psoriasis and others, was announced today by researchers at the La Jolla Institute for Allergy & Immunology (LIAI). The studies, conducted in laboratory mice, demonstrated the role of retinoic acid, a substance derived when Vitamin A is broken down in the body, in regulating inflammation.

Related Articles

In these studies, published in the journal Science, the LIAI researchers showed that by manipulating the amount of retinoic acid in mice, they could affect the number of pro-inflammatory T cells, a type of white blood cell responsible for several autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. The finding is an important first step that, if eventually found to be true in humans, points to the potential of a new avenue of therapies using retinoic acid to treat these diseases.

"What's exciting about this finding is they've found that retinoic acid plays a role in modulating the switch between these two distinct (T cell) lineages -- the induced regulatory T cells, which are anti-inflammatory, and the TH-17 lineage, which promotes inflammatory responses, " said Casey Weaver, M.D., a University of Alabama, Birmingham, professor and prominent immunology researcher, who was key in the discovery of TH-17 in 2005.

Further, Dr. Weaver said, the LIAI researchers had developed a "mechanism by which you can prevent the development of the (inflammatory) lineage. This is very exciting because it provides a potential pharmacological application for this finding."

The LIAI team tested three approaches with retinoic acid. In one model, they injected the mice with retinoic acid, essentially giving them more of the substance than they would have through normal body processes. This suppressed the formation of pro-inflammatory T cells in the intestines of the mice, demonstrating that increases in retinoic acid reduced inflammation. In another approach, designed to test how reducing retinoic acid would affect inflammation, the team used an inhibitor to block retinoic acid in the mice.

This led to the decrease of anti-inflammatory T cells, showing that reducing retinoic acid increased inflammation. In a third, particularly exciting approach, the scientists treated T cells with retinoic acid in a test tube. When put back into the mice, these T cells prevented the formation of inflammatory T cells in the mice. This is especially noteworthy because combining the retinoic acid and T cells outside the body may avoid possible side effects that are more likely when scientists attempt to manipulate body processes internally.

"We found that you can control inflammation in a living animal with retinoic acid or you can treat cells with retinoic acid in a test tube and transfer them to the organism to suppress inflammation in vivo," said Dr. Cheroutre. "This may offer an important new avenue for treatment of autoimmune diseases like colitis and rheumatoid arthritis or other inflammatory diseases, as well as potentially providing a mechanism for the control of graft rejections, where you don't want the immune system to attack the grafted tissue."

The finding was published in a paper entitled "Reciprocal Th-17 and regulatory T cell differentiation mediated by retinoic acid." Hilde Cheroutre, Ph.D., led the research team, entirely from LIAI, in which Daniel Mucida, Ph.D., and Yunji Park, Ph.D., were key contributors.

La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology. (2007, June 18). Potential Role For Retinoic Acid In Autoimmune And Inflammatory Diseases Identified. ScienceDaily. Retrieved March 31, 2015 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/06/070614151809.htm

Mar. 31, 2015  Increasing state alcohol taxes could prevent thousands of deaths a year from car crashes, say researchers, who found alcohol-related motor vehicle crashes decreased after taxes on beer, wine and ... full story

Mar. 31, 2015  Alcoholism takes a toll on every aspect of a person's life, including skin problems. Now, a new research report helps explain why this happens and what might be done to address it. "The clinical ... full story

Mar. 31, 2015  A new population of 'memory' immune cells has been discovered by scientists, throwing light on what the body does when it sees a microbe for the second time. This insight, and others like it, will ... full story

Mar. 31, 2015  Coronary heart disease and stroke, two of the leading causes of death in the United States, are diseases associated with heightened platelet reactivity. A new study in humans suggests an underlying ... full story

Mar. 31, 2015  A new study had researchers seeking answers to why the therapeutic benefit afforded by SSRIs was so limited in children and teenagers. If researchers can uncover the biological mechanisms preventing ... full story

Mar. 31, 2015  A drug being developed to treat osteoporosis may also be useful for treating osteogenesis imperfecta or brittle bone disease, a rare but potentially debilitating bone disorder that that is present ... full story

Mar. 31, 2015  It is possible to quantify and classify the effects of different diseases on the activity of intestinal bacteria, new research demonstrates for the first time. Human intestinal flora, known as ... full story

Mar. 31, 2015  During prenatal development, the brains of most animals, including humans, develop specifically male or female characteristics. But scientists have known little about the details of how this ... full story

Mar. 31, 2015  A history of depression may put women at risk for developing diabetes during pregnancy, according to research. This study also pointed to how common depression is during pregnancy and the need for ... full story

Featured Videos

Solitair Device Aims to Takes Guesswork out of Sun Safety

Reuters - Innovations Video Online (Mar. 31, 2015)  The Solitair device aims to take the confusion out of how much sunlight we should expose our skin to. Small enough to be worn as a tie or hair clip, it monitors the user&apos;s sun exposure by taking into account their skin pigment, location and schedule. Matthew Stock reports.
Video provided by Reuters

Soda, Salt and Sugar: The Next Generation of Taxes

Washington Post (Mar. 30, 2015)  Denisa Livingston, a health advocate for the Dinι Community Advocacy Alliance, and the Post&apos;s Abby Phillip discuss efforts around the country to make unhealthy food choices hurt your wallet as much as your waistline.
Video provided by Washington Post

S. Leone in New Anti-Ebola Lockdown

AFP (Mar. 28, 2015)  Sierra Leone imposed a three-day nationwide lockdown Friday for the second time in six months in a bid to prevent a resurgence of the deadly Ebola virus. Duration: 01:17
Video provided by AFP

Apr. 7, 2013  In a ground-breaking study, researchers report a new technique that allows them to visualize the distribution of retinoic acid in a live zebrafish embryo, in real-time. This technique enabled them to ... full story

Aug. 16, 2011  Researchers in Belgium have shown that a defective gene can contribute to the onset of rheumatoid arthritis, an often-crippling inflammation of the joints that afflicts about one percent of the ... full story

ScienceDaily features breaking news and videos about the latest discoveries in health, technology, the environment, and more -- from major news services and leading universities, scientific journals, and research organizations.